This article analyses the way in which different socio-political configurations have had a significant effect on the economic development of Argentina, Brasil and Mexico. The characteristics of the socio-political coalitions in the three countries are presented, and their imprints on industrial...

Hospital heterogeneity is a major issue in defining a reimbursement system. If hospitals are heterogeneous, it is difficult to distinguish which part of the differences in costs is due to cost containment efforts and which part cannot be reduced, because it is due to other unobserved sources of...

In many areas of health care financing, there is controversy over the sources of cost variability and about the respective roles of inefficiency versus legitimate heterogeneity. This paper proposes a payment system that creates incentives to increase hospital efficiency when hospitals are...